Success with Florist Cyclamen
There’s nothing else quite like florist cyclamen. These winter blooms are showy, festive, often fragrant, & blooming in their full glory when most other flowers have called it quits. Once they’ve been set up for success, they’re also pretty low-maintenance. But to reap these rewards, you’ll need to create the right conditions to help your cyclamen thrive.
Know Your Cyclamen
Florist cyclamen is not to be confused with its smaller, more cold-hardy cousins. Hardy cyclamen species are excellent plants, but their care requirements are quite a bit different. That’s a blog post for another day.
Florist cyclamen has big, show-stopping flowers that come in vibrant shades of white, red, burgundy, magenta, and pink. Unlike the hardy species C. hederifolium and C. coum, florist cyclamen won’t live for more than a season without special care. But what they lack in longevity, they make up for in stunning blooms.
Indoors or Out?
Florist cyclamen is one of just a few plants that we sell in more than one department. You can find them side-by-side with zygo cactus and other festive indoor favorites, and also gracing the front tables in our unheated greenhouse. So where should you grow them, indoors or out?
Either way works, but they present different challenges and require different kinds of care. Florist cyclamen can’t handle temperatures below about 40°F for any length of time, but consistent temperatures above about 60°F will cause them to go dormant and lose their leaves.
Indoors, the best place for florist cyclamen is a cool, brightly-lit room. If it’s possible to move it somewhere cooler than the rest of the house (but still above 40°) at night, so much the better.
Outdoors, cyclamen is perfect for window boxes and other containers that are close to a building. When tucked away slightly out of the elements, cyclamen will be fine most nights. If possible, don’t transplant them. Just tuck them into your containers, pot and all. That way, you can easily move them to a garage or other more protected spot overnight if a hard freeze threatens.
Water with Care
Cyclamen like to be a bit on the dry side. They especially dislike the top of their crown staying wet. When transplanting cyclamen to a new container, use a light potting mix, never garden soil or compost. It’s best to leave the crown above the soil, and then fill in with sand or gravel to cover it. If possible, water by placing the pot in a dish of water so that it can seep up from the bottom. Wait to water until the soil is dry to the touch.
On the other hand, cyclamen can find the air inside of houses too dry. Provide a shallow tray full of water underneath the plants to increase humidity, but make sure the plants aren’t sitting directly in the water.
The bottom line is, keep the soil on the dry side, and the air cool and humid.
Preventing Botrytis
So you’ve tucked your florist cyclamen into the perfect, sunny yet cool spot in your house, or nestled it among seasonal greenery in your window box outside. The crowns aren’t covered with soil. You’ve been careful not to overwater.
Nicely done! There’s just one more thing you need to watch out for. But don’t worry, you’ve got this.
Botrytis is a fungus that loves the same conditions cyclamen does. It shows up as a gray, fuzzy mold, and it usually makes its first appearance on the crown of the plant. The bad news is that it’s hard to cure. The good news is that you can prevent it.
You’ve already taken some great steps towards preventing botrytis by planting your cyclamen correctly and watering from the bottom. Next, make sure you provide air space between each plant. For indoor plants, use a fan for an artificial breeze. Clean up spent flowers as soon as possible, and don’t go overboard with the fertilizer. Hopefully your cyclamen will stay fungus-free.
Yes, They're Worth It!
If that all sounds like a lot of work, don’t give up yet! Florist cyclamen may have some particular preferences, but it’s really quite agreeable once its basic needs are met. You will only occasionally have to water your cyclamen plants, and they will bloom beautifully all through the darkest time of year.
